How Hatred Changes Your Brain

“Seeing someone you hate – from that nasty lab partner to your cheating ex-boyfriend – produces sudden changes in the brain, according to a recent study conducted by British neuroscientists. The researchers took fMRI scans of subjects as they viewed both pictures of people they claimed to hate, as well as acquaintances to whom they felt neutrally. Not surprisingly, hatred activated areas involved in aggression and corresponding motor regions. Most specifically, the medial frontal gyrus, right putamen, bilateral prefrontal cortex, and bilateral medial insula exhibited heightened activity. The scientists even found three areas (right insula, right premotor cortex, right fronto-medial gyrus) that correlated linearly with the professed level of hatred the participants assigned to each picture. Interestingly, though, hatred activity also showed a surprising degree of correlation with areas involved in logic and planning. The researchers write: What seems not to be in doubt is that this cortical zone involves the premotor cortex, a zone that has been implicated in the preparation of motor planning and its execution. We hypothesize that the sight of a hated person mobilizes the motor system for the possibility of attack or defense. These findings could have legal implications, given that in some states, hate crimes lead to tougher sentencing. If a court could prove someone committed a crime while under the influence of hate, or that a defendant harbored strong hated towards the victim, the findings could be used to toughen the sentencing of the perpetrator.” Ref